Online learning is the new face of education
Gone are the days when students roll out of their beds and trudge to the bus stop to reach school. Instead, most students turn on their smartphones, flip their laptop screens, or turn on their tablets. The flexibility of online learning has achieved tremendous success these days. However, the biggest challenge is for the educators to keep the students engaged, alert, and willing to participate.
In 2020, about 8.6 million students enrolled exclusively in distance education courses. Besides, 5.42 million students were enrolled in at least one distance education course in the same year. Capturing students’ attention and keeping them engaged has always been a task for instructors, but it has become tricky with a digital setup. If you as an educator wonder how to excite and engage your students who live miles away, here are 10 great tips to improve student engagement in virtual classrooms.
10 New Ideas To Keep Students Engaged In A Virtual Classroom
- Set A Decorum
While teaching in a virtual setting, establishing class decorum can be challenging. However, you can always advise your students to maintain classroom etiquette and set up ground rules. Select a virtual platform that offers a structured environment with two-way communication. Students should be able to interact actively and raise their queries during the class. If you wonder how to set decorum, take a look.
- Ask your students to find a proper place to sit and avoid all distractions.
- Rude and discouraging language of interaction should not be entertained.
- Employ The Right Technology
Choosing the right teaching platform enhances student participation as it boosts real-time communication and offers access to information. In the fast-paced world, students expect to be constantly connected with their tutors and want immediate responses and reactions from them. Moreover, most students cannot understand their professor’s requirements when it comes to homework and hence reach out to Dissertation Help Services for guidance. Thus, being aware of the various online platforms that will boost effective learning will enable the students to grasp concepts better. Here is how you can foster engagement in a virtual class.
- Find a feature-packed platform for interaction, engagement, and better communication.
- Share links to online study materials, audios, videos, articles, etc., to make them comprehend the topics better.
- Integrate Virtual Interactions
In virtual classrooms, isolation can be a giant downside and quickly lead to disengagement. Thus, integration of face-to-face virtual interactions is necessary. In addition, your students should be able to analyze their body language and emotions to feel connected and stay present in the class. Here are some ways to combat isolation in online courses.
- Record a video of your lectures, and share it with your students so that they can see your face and feel interested in listening to the lecture.
- Make teams and encourage your students to collaborate and participate in groups during a video conference to break the ice and foster friendships.
- Communicate Effectively
Communication is the key, and you never know where and why your student is lagging or feeling bored unless you communicate. Virtual settings might make your students shy or disinterested. Additionally, they might also slowly fade into the background unless you make a conscious effort to reach out to them. Try out these ways to build online communication.
- Arrange discussion forums, share recorded audios or videos or attach large materials in the mail to provide a gateway for communication.
- Create a social media group or offer virtual office hours and consider one-to-one scheduling to pique every learner’s interest.
- Create Individual Study Plans
Every student is different in learning all the techniques and concepts effectively. Thus, all the students need to be catered to differently, even in a virtual setting. Use the unique benefits of a virtual classroom to help build individual session plans for your students. Regardless of group or individual sessions, you need to pay attention to every student individually to track their performance actively. Here is how you can prepare individual session plans for your students.
- Understand your student’s learning styles, like if they are auditory, visual, or kinesthetic, and develop learning objectives accordingly.
- Assess every student’s performance to discover holes in their knowledge, determine what works for them and adjust the pace of the lessons to fulfill the session goals.
- Offer Interactive Learning
Online classrooms are nothing like traditional settings, and thus going by the old norms might not offer a fruitful session. Hence, develop a classroom where you provide hands-on experience to your students. Online classes should be founded upon building student engagement through guided social interaction. Your students should not be sitting ideally in the class listening to hours of lectures as this can get them bored. Hence, follow these tips to design a flipped classroom setting.
- Design a course to engage your students, get them to speak, raise hands and actively participate and learn.
- Offer various tasks for hands-on learning like group discussions, conducting interviews, analyzing data, working on case studies, etc.
- Provide Timely Feedback
Along with studies, coursework, and assignment, feedback should also be consistent, timely, and ongoing. Moreover, you can also ask your students how they feel about your classes. While offering feedback, be honest and transparent and talk to each student directly. Make them aware of their strengths and weaknesses to work on them and improve each day. Here is how you can provide timely feedback.
- Build a practice to conduct regular feedback sessions and offer accurate details about the progress in terms of teaching practices.
- Provide detailed, positive, and accurate feedback without vague and unclear praise or pointers.
- Active Learning
Active learning is a method to keep students engaged creatively. This can be done through video calls or chat groups. To make classes more interesting, you can add some procedures in the regular classroom to make the setting more comfortable and fun. You use the following methods to promote active learning.
- Perform activities in class that will encourage discussion of the problems and solutions through class interaction and involvement.
- Arrange quizzes, interviews, or group discussions once a session is complete, and allow your students to clear their doubts or questions on the completed units.
- Project Based Learning
Project-based learning is meant to create an engaging environment for students. Try to group them or allow them to do something on their own. The sense of responsibility will challenge their learning potential, and the students will put extra effort into achieving their targets.
- Give a project, task, or activity to develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and other skills.
- Provide a time-based project where a student is required to interact that will foster teamwork and engagement and offer a comprehensive solution.
- Add Flexibility
Online learning is at its peak because it is highly flexible. Thus, while teaching your students, try to shed the rigid routine and allow them some flexibility in their lea ring environment. Not every student would want to write an essay or do a book report and hence would look for a Essay Maker tool to delegate their tasks. You can also go for Cheap Assignment Help services if you want it difficult to write by yourself. Thus,
- Allow them to use their creativity, existing talents, and interests to complete an assignment.
- Divide the class into groups and give them a group task to be surprised by their ingenuity.
Final Thoughts
Engagement is directly proportional to successful learning. Therefore, regardless of a virtual or traditional classroom setting, you need to use techniques that motivate students to participate and pique their interests to achieve their educational goals.
Author’s Bio
Ethan Taylor hailing from Texas, United States, is an academic counselor at the University of Texas. Having an experience of 8 years, he is currently associated with MyAssignmenthelp.com as a subject matter expert. In addition, he offers dissertation help to dreaded students.
